Bilal the First Muezzin in Islam

Most churches, especially those with a tradition stretching several centuries back, often have a bell tower, whose bell chimes whenever the church wishes to gather its faithful for prayers or any other important event. It is simple and effective; when the bells chime across town, residents are immediately informed of any important activity.

Similarly, in Islam, there is a means to call people to prayer. Instead of bells, the Muslim faithful are called to prayer by a muezzin, a pious Muslim whose job it is to sing out the call to prayer.

By the muezzin’s calls, the Muslim knows when it is time to pray (5 times a day), and as such, the muezzin plays an important role in helping the Muslim faithful meet  the requirements of his faith. Being a muezzin is really an art form, and was highly regarded since the first muezzin called people to prayers in the day when Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) was still calling people over the Arabian plains to abandon their pagan ways for this monotheistic religion.

Among the many followers of the Prophet was a freed slave known as Bilal ibn Rabah al Habashi. Bilal had been born into slavery, the son of an Arab and an Abyssinian.  He lived most of his life herding his master’s camels and minding some dates, and his life would have been all about this were it not for the fact that he converted to Islam, a very controversial faith in Arabia in those days (600s AD). For being an ‘affront’ to established pagan religions, especially around Mecca, Muslims were frequently persecuted in order to denounce their faith. When Bilal was discovered by his master praying like a Muslim, he was immediately subjected to a series of beatings and punishments to force him to renounce his faith. Many a times he was made to lie on the ground, with all his limbs tied to posts and with a heavy stone placed on his chest. Every now and then he would receive beatings organized by his master. He would have become Islam’s second martyr, were he not rescued by Abu Bakr, a wealthy man who would rise to be the first to succeed the Prophet after his death in 632 AD.

Manumitted, Bilal joined the Prophet in his travels, even engaging in the military campaigns such as the Battle of Badr, Uhud and the Trench. Successful in many of his campaigns, the Prophet and his Muslims established the Islamic State of Medina. Here the Prophet agonized over the best way to call Muslims to prayer. As he already knew, Christians used bells to summon their faithful, and the Jews used trumpets.  One tradition suggests that the adhan, the call to prayer, was revealed to a companion of the Prophet, who on being informed of the revelation, called for Bilal to be taught its words. And thus Bilal became the first muezzin in the Islamic world, walking the streets of Medina and calling out the Muslim faithful with his sonorous renditions.

Within the state of Medina, Bilal was appointed the treasurer.

When Mecca was finally brought under the control of the Prophet, Bilal climbed atop the Kaaba, and sang out the adhan to the amazement of Meccans. He served as a muezzin until the death of the Prophet, from which point he had an ideological split with Abu Bakr, the first caliph after the Prophet. He went to exile in Syria, where he died sometime between 638 and 642 AD.

By Matengo Chwanya

Sources: The religion of Islam, Hadith of the day

Africa Global News Publication